Well, the Chiefs didn’t win the game, the Ravens committed gridiron suicide. Mistake after mistake after mistake did the trick.
Ravens got pass-happy. They played the second half like they were down 30 when they were only ever back 10. OC Todd Monken’s plan was either idiotic or non-existent, and he very much deserves firing just for that game.
So would you say the same thing about the Lions?
Not really. They had a fabulous first half and the 49ers were flat. The 49ers had a great 2nd half and the Lions cooled off. True, the fumble was brutal, but it wasn’t a “mistake after mistake after mistake” situation.
Take away the fumble and the freak long pass by SF and the Lions win in a walk. Sure, I would have kicked the FGs but a case can be made for going for it too.
I don’t understand what people have against going for it. If they hadn’t consistently done that all season, they wouldn’t have been in this game in the first place. Or have score as much in this game in the first place. So, the solution is to go against the stats and change their practices at the last minute to become more conservative instead of aggressively going for the win as they have all season? What sense does that make? NFL fans don’t love to win. They love to avoid losing
I know everybody wants to find “the” reason they lost. There isn’t one. A game is made up of hundreds of little things. The Lions messed up on enough of them to lose. But if you want to find one that had more of an impact than the others, don’t look at the 4th down calls, look to the 3rd quarter when Detroit fumbles on a 1st and 10 following a touchback. Turnovers are bad at any point of the game, but giving the other team the ball back on the 25 immediately after they just scored is cutting your own throat.
They went for it in field goal range three times and came away with seven points instead of kicking it three times for nine points.
But they could have missed one or more of those three possible field goals.
All second guessing aside, if the defense had just been good enough to NOT blow a halftime 17 POINT LEAD, no second guessing on whether or not they should have just gone for 3 would be necessary 
But look at it from the point-in-game situation. Had they kicked (and converted) the FG the first two times, they would have been down just four points instead of ten on their last drive. (Assuming, of course, that everything else plays out the same.) Down four with less than a minute to go, they obviously go for it on 4th down.
Even kicking a FG on one of those situations gives them a chance to win the game.
And in both of the earlier 4th-down situations, converting a first down does not guarantee a touchdown. One was at the SF 28, and the other at the SF 30.
And those extra 2 points would have made all the difference in a 3 point loss
That’s not giving the Chiefs nearly enough credit. They made the plays. They pressured Jackson. They had some hand in those “mistakes.”
It’ll be tough for her to get to the game in time after her concert in Japan that day.
Heh. Just saw on The Today Show that she’ll be able to make it, even though it’s a 13 hour flight. Doubt if she’ll be flying coach.
Apparently she has a 737? Or some large airliner.
No, definitely not flying coach
Show owns multiple jets.
Assume you meant ‘she’ or ‘Swift’.
And, yes, most of us are aware of her many modes of transportation.
I also think the call to run on 3rd down at the very end was pretty bad. It made them use one of their timeouts, which made them go for the onside kick and let the 49ers kill the entire clock. If they had kept that third timeout the 49ers either have to get a first down or punt the ball away with 30 seconds or so left.
The 4th down calls were both coin flips, IMO. I think the analytics back that up. I was actually slightly more down on the first one. When you have a solid lead I think adding more points is almost always the right call. It helps keep the momentum on your side, and removes a possible momentum-shifting stop from the equation. At that point trading TDs for FGs probably wasn’t going to be enough for the 49ers, so why give them a chance at the turnover they need to come back?
Once the game was close I’m OK with going for it to maximize the points you score.
I think I read they had 6 rushes by RBs all game. The others were either QB runs or WR runs. That’s pretty bad play calling…
Gus Edwards, their best running back, had three carries. Three. Against a Chiefs defense that has struggled against the run this year.
The mood in metro-Detroit is pretty depressed. Just being in the Super Bowl was a big deal for us and we still have never been to one. I hope the Lions only improve for next year.
Yup - every team tends to make mistakes. The Chefs just manage to play a near-perfect game, and forced Baltimore into pressing. The Chefs’ defense continued to be overlooked - having a fully healthy Chris Jones (who was motivated by a $1.1m Super Bowl appearance clause) didn’t hurt. And L’Jarius Sneed is an absolute assassin.